Ink and Paper
by GringoKity
Summary: Sesshomaru and the gang do some time jumping.
1. Chapter 1

The woman sat hunched over her latest drawing. 'Damn why did I wait so long to get this proof done?' She thought. Her eraser just wouldn't keep up with all her mistakes. 'My boss is going to kill me. These are due tomorrow morning at 8 exactly.' Lacey glanced at the clock by her bed and winced. '12:15!' Carefully she re-drew the sailboat and the happy people's expressions making sure their eyes looked really excited about the trip. After the outline was done she looked at the clock again. '1:20.' She had wasted over an hour on that little bit. No wonder she was so far behind in her work.

The ad she was completing with colored pencils was an ad for a sailboat tour around Japan. 'Now just a bit of color in the center to draw the eye of an unsuspecting customer.' Her hand reached for the red and to her horror she toppled the can of paint brushes that had been sitting on her desk. The paint brushes rolled across the desk, the water in the can was a sickening color of brown from all the colors of paint mixed together. She gasped as the used water drenched the ad. Shocked and trembling, she dabbed at the ad with a dry towel and was relieved for a second when the boat was unharmed, but soon found out that the people were just blobs. She dried the paper as best she could and sat it on the window sill to dry. 'It wouldn't work. Those people don't even look like people and that was my last piece of drawing paper.' Her thoughts went to the other drawings she had crumpled up and tossed in the trash. She cleaned up the rest of the brown sludge on her desk and placed the paint brushes back in their can with some fresh water so they wouldn't dry out.

Her eyes landed on the heap of trash that overflowed the trashcan into her bedroom floor. She sighed and rolled her eyes. 'Look at this mess.' Hopefully one of these pictures would be good. She got down on her hands and knees, picking up rolled balls of paper and un-crumpled them only to wad them back up and toss them over her shoulder. One after another she went through them. She was getting desperate. She picked out a piece of paper at the bottom of the can and looked at it. "It's not that bad." She said to herself. "If I can just fix this little thing here..."

Laying the drawing on her desk she began to erase the words over the picture and...rip...her pencil eraser went right through the paper leaving a hole. She mentally screamed and wadded the paper back in to a ball and threw it across the room, only to go and retrieve it again. "Tape?" She found some clear tape and carefully taped the hole in the paper from behind. Again she began to erase the wording, but a little more carefully than last time. She wrote a new advertisement slogan. 'A whole new experience' on the top of the drawing and leaned back satisfied. With this and a few others from the discard pile she might just make a good presentation.

Around 7am, Lacey awoke with a start. Her head was resting on her desk and she raised her eyes to glare at the annoying alarm clock, before switching it off and getting up. She sat up and stretched feeling dry-mouthed and ragged. Her legs buzzed with the odd sensation of having fallen asleep on her while sitting in the hard wooden chair all night. She grumbled and tried to walk some feeling back in to her stiff legs.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face she quickly brushed through her curly red hair. While applying the slightest amount of makeup she noticed a gray hair. "The stress of this job is going to kill me." She mumbled to her reflection.

Lacey looked up at the clock over her head. "Why am I always so late?" She dashed through the living room in her underwear and flung open the closet door. Flinging clothes on her bed, she finally found what she was going to wear and slipped it on. Fumbling through her purse for her keys, she left her apartment and locked the door.

She had just stepped off the elevator, when she heard her friend practically scream her name. Janice grabbed her by the elbow, knocking her off-balance. She juggled her coffee and her presentation board while trying to keep up with her office friend. "Janice, what's the rush?"

They turned down a long hallway and Lacey found herself in front of large double doors. "The boss is really mad at you Lacey." Janice hissed. "The Japanese have been here for a half hour already!" She took Lacey's coffee cup and sat it on the receptionist's desk. The receptionist blinked at the cup, but said nothing. "Mr. Moorley is totally pissed, he wasn't expecting them to arrive so early."

Lacey tugged on the hem of her skirt and straightened her shirt before knocking on the door. Janice backed away with a thumb up and an awkward smile. 'How was I supposed to know they would be so early?' She grimaced at the thought. Lacey's heart jumped when she heard her boss bid her enter. She opened the door cautiously, and stood in the doorway for a moment, her green eyes circling the room. Two men sat opposite her boss and Lacey knew they were the potential clients. She stepped into the office and closed the door behind her when Mr. Moorley motioned her to a seat next to him.

It wasn't until she sat down that she saw the other person in the room. The woman was slight and pretty with dark eyes and hair. She nodded at Lacey and Lacey guessed she would be the interpreter. A moment later one of the two men began talking and she explained to them what he had just said. Her voice was soft and lilting, but she knew her job well, because she also kept accurate notes of what was being said.

Lacey heard her boss say something and realized he was looking at her pointedly. Mr. Moorley grumbled something under his breath. She nearly jumped to her feat, causing her to trip on her high heals. 'Deathtraps!' She steadied herself on nervous legs and put her presentation board up on the easel. Her hands shook a little as she went through each of the drawings. Four sets of eyes were on her as she spoke. Her blood rushed in her ears and a blush crept up her cheeks.

The interpreter took notes while speaking. Both the Japanese men nodded and gave comments to her boss about the drawings. Mr. Moorley looked pleased, but Lacey knew there was something dangerous lurking behind those eyes. Lacey finished up her presentation with a flourish and was even a little bit proud of her work.

The men stood up to leave and bowed slightly. Mr. Moorley bowed back stiffly. The young woman that acted as interpreter stood also and flipped her notebook shut. She smiled at Lacey, then at Mr. Moorley and then bowed out of the room, following on the heals of the two Japanese gentlemen. They chatted on their way to the elevators and Lacey let herself relax as they entered the elevator at last and the door closed.

Apparently she had relaxed too soon, because Mr. Moorley chose that moment to start yelling at her. "Well Ms. Keegle, It looks like you just cost the company a four million dollar deal!" Mr. Moorley's face was red with anger. He strode over to her presentation board and took the drawings off the easel. "What the hell is this?" He was livid. He snatched the drawings off the cardboard background and shoved the wrinkled paper right in front of her face. She looked shocked. At her lack of response, he went on to berate her. "This is shit. I asked for excitement and sexuality and you give me smiling happy families?" He ripped the paper and tossed it in the trash.

"I thought...I would try to show it as a family sort of place..." She gulped as her knocked over the easel with a kick. "I thought maybe a different direction..."

"A different direction? A different direction? Sex sells not this happy go lucky family shit." He swiped his hand through his hair and stormed across the room. He was only a foot away from her while he yelled directly in her face. "You listen to me girly. I'm the boss around here and what I say goes. If I say sensual and exotic I mean just that!" Lacey backed away from him, bumping into the door. "I could strangle you. Four million dollars! Four million!" He turned away from her leaning heavily on his desk. He was breathing heavily trying to calm down. "Nobody believes in traditional family values Ms. Keegle." She thought he was acting more like himself. He looked tired and stressed. She sure it was just stress that had made him yell like that.

His secretary came in with a worried look on her face as she stared from her boss to the frightened look in Lacey's eyes. She took pity on the woman and interrupted. "Um Mr. Moorley you have a call on line two. I think it's your wife." She backed out of the room quickly and went back to her desk.

Lacey stood up straight and fixed her appearance into something more stoic. She shook off the strange feeling of dread and stood watching Mr. Moorley for a minute. "Sir?" She waited for him to respond or at least look at her. "I'm sorry Mr. Moorley I won't do it again. I was just trying to...I thought they liked it."

Mr. Moorley shook his head and looked her straight in the eyes. His eyes were sharp and his voice was cold as he spoke. "You're damn right you won't do it again." He sat at his desk and picked up the receiver to the phone. "Hello?" He said into his phone. Lacey went towards the door about to leave him to his phone conversation. "Ms. Keegle." He had his hand over the receiver, looking directly at her.

"Yes?" She turned back expecting maybe an apology.

"You're fired." He returned to listening to the person on the phone for a second and then looked up at her as though he were surprised to see her still standing there. "Go clean out your office. I want you gone in an hour." He returned to his conversation effectively blocking her out of his mind.

Lacey felt like a zombie as she walked out of her ex-employers office and down his hall to her own office. Janice was in front of her office door, the smile on her face fading. She put a hand on her friends arm and felt her tense up.

"What happened in there? We could hear him yelling from across the office building." She remembered hearing Mr. Moorley bellowing at the top of his lungs, but they hadn't quite made out the words as they were muffled by the large wooded doors. They had assumed he was excited about the new account since the Japanese had looked so pleased on their way out. "Lacey do you want some coffee?" She asked her friend worried by the blank stare she received.

"He fired me." Was all she could get out, those words catching in her throat. Now that she said them out loud she could feel the sting of them. Her eyes felt dry so she blinked and found that they weren't dry at all. She rushed in to her office and let the door shut behind her with a soft click. She slumped against the door and laid her head on her knees, crying into her skirt.

Janice helped her friend pack up what little belongings she had in her office. She promised to take her anything else that they might have missed while cleaning up, but Lacey had done so little work here in the office that she didn't really have enough to fill the file box she now carried. Janice walked with her to the elevator and watched her friend smile weakly as she pressed the down button. Her eyes were still full of tears, but she held them in. She smiled back.

"Lacey wait." She jumped in the elevator as the doors slid shut behind her. "I'll at least walk you down to the taxi." They stood in the elevator silently thinking their own thoughts while they descended. When the door opened they both walked out into the daylight that seemed so bright in comparison to the florescent lights of the office building. At least that's what Janice told herself as she blinked the tears back that threatened to overflow. "Lacey..." Lacey looked at her friend and then nodding put the half empty box on the sidewalk. "You're the only one I liked in that stuffy building." Janice cried as she hugged her friend close. "I'll miss you."

"Janice we'll see each other again." Lacey tried to smile for her friend, but it came out lopsided. "It's not like we can't go out anymore."

Janice sighed heavily taking a step back, but still holding on to her friend's hand. "I know, but it won't be the same. We won't be able to talk about problems at work and laugh over the stupid things we did all day." Janice smiled this time a genuine smile. "You know what though?"

"Hmm?"

"At least you won't have to be around that asshole Moorley anymore. Besides you were meant for better places than this hellhole. Ads really aren't your forte." She giggled and Lacey hugged her again.

Letting go she picked her box back up and looked forward to getting home to a warm bath and maybe a nap. Yeah a nap sounded really good after all the scrambling she had done the night before with very little sleep. She hailed a cab. One stopped a few feet away from the curb and she got in, sitting her box next to her on the seat. "Things will work out." She shouted out the window. "Maybe one day you'll be working for me?" That made Janice laugh and she was feeling better herself. Janice was right. She didn't need the office or that job and in a few days she would be on her way to a new life. She waved until she couldn't see the lone figure on the sidewalk anymore. She sighed and told the cabby the directions to her apartment building.


	2. Chapter 2

Lacey walked in to the unemployment office for the first time in years and found that it hadn't changed much. It had been a month since she had been fired. She had looked in newspapers and job ads, but nobody was hiring. She hated taking charity, but her rent was due in a week and she had very little cash saved up. She needed the money. It was either this or try and find another apartment with rent control that didn't smell like BO. Lacey wasn't broke yet, but she had a feeling that finding a job would be harder this time than when she was younger and inexperienced. After she paid the months rent she would have just enough money to buy some food for the week.

The line moved up an inch and someone from behind jostled her 'til she was forced to take a step forward. She grumbled something rude under her breath and bit her lip to keep from yelling at the lady with the baby that wouldn't stop crying. It wasn't the babies fault Lacey realized. The baby was probably just hungry and by the looks of things it looked like the woman's other three kids were too. Lacey rolled her eyes heavenward. 'God get me out of this place.' The line moved forward again and Lacey let out a pent up breath.

An hour of waiting and she was about ready to explode. 'Why the hell did that woman have to have so many damn kids? Didn't she ever hear of birth control?' For crying out loud they were making her nuts. One kid was climbing on the poles that marked out the long path the people in line had to take and another was running in circles making noises like cars and airplanes, she didn't know what. The third brat was hanging on his mom's dress yelling at her that he was hungry. His voice kept getting louder and louder and the mother wasn't doing a thing to settle them down. The baby was the only one not crying and Lacey wanted to smack the mom for feeding her baby in public. The woman didn't even have the decency to cover herself up and the three year old was trying to latch on to her other breast as though that were normal.

"White trash slut." Someone behind her grumbled irritably. "People like her living off the state make me sick. It's people like her that make the rest of us look bad." Lacey couldn't agree more, but she decided to say nothing.

Her head was pounding by the time she got to the counter. She leaned on it and placed her fingers on her temples. "Can I help you?" Lacey looked up, her eyes staring fixedly on the arrogant woman behind the counter. "Look its nearly closing time." The girl waved at the clock behind her head. "So what can I do for you?"

Lacey sneered at the girl's demeanor. "I've been standing in this line for over two hours listening to screaming kids and smelling all sorts of God knows what, and you give me attitude?" The girl gave Lacey an unapologetic look.

"Sorry ma'am, but if you insist on talking to me that way I'll be forced to ask you to go to the end of the line."

Lacey's jaw dropped. "The end of the line? You wouldn't dare."

"Please go to the end of the line." The girl replied. "Next." Lacey was shoved to the side by a man that smelled like stale cologne and sweat.

"No way!" Lacey elbowed the man in the gut and shoved her way in front of him. "I just want to sign up for job placement assistance and unemployment before you close. Tomorrow is the weekend and you're not open until Monday and my rent can't wait that long." Lacey didn't care if the man behind her was staring daggers into her back.

"Actually maim, Monday is a National holiday so we're not open until Tuesday." The girl looked at her watch. "Its five o'clock. Time to close for the day." She put a little 'CLOSED' plaque on the counter and turned her back on the expectant crowd.

The man behind Lacey said something about women with breasts like hers should be working at Hooters not standing in line here.

"Wait you can at least give me the papers to fill out!" Lacey flung an arm out and grasped the girl's sleeve.

"Security!"

'Oh shit!' Lacey thought as she collected herself and stepped back from the counter. The others behind her were starting to file out of the building, knowing the routine by heart. "Uh...um..." Lacey saw a big man in a blue security guard uniform approach her from behind. "Can't you give a lady a break and just hand me the papers. I'll fill them out really quick. I promise." She pleaded.

The girl huffed, but something in her demeanor had changed. She flounced out of the room for a second and then pranced back, holding a small stack of forms. "Here." She handed them to Lacey to fill out and dismissed the guard. "Hurry up, while I lock up."

Lacey watched the rest of the Unemployment officers grab their coats and leave. She grabbed a pen and wrote her information down quickly. 'If only she had been able to work so quickly while she still had a job, she wouldn't be in this mess now.' She thought irritably. "I'm done. Now what?"

"You'll get your first payment in three to five weeks. You'll have to call in every week to verify that you're looking for work. The number is free, but if you miss a week then you miss that week's check."

"Why three to five weeks?"

"Because the government has to verify that your claim to benefits is valid and that you really are unemployed. You receive back payments on previous weeks once everything is substantiated."

"If I was employed do you think I would be standing here all day?" Lacey quipped.

"It sure beats the hell out of working all day." The girl replied and led Lacey out in to the street.

"Easy for you to say." Lacey mumbled and walked down the street to her apartment that was only seven blocks away. 'Good thing I need the exercise.' Sure she looked fit enough, but it had been a while since she had been out walking anywhere. Mostly she sat at interviews or sat at home trying to draw or watch TV and that surely wasn't healthy.

At her apartment, Lacey pressed the blinking button on the answering machine.

"Hi Ms Keegle, I'm calling you to tell you about our great new offer..." She quickly cleared the message. "Hi lacey, it's Janice. I was calling to see if you wanted to go out tonight. Sort of a girl's night out. It's been a while since we've last talked. If you're not too depressed we can get a few drinks. Yea I know you're not really a drinker, but I'll pay. Come on Lacey you know you want to. I guess I'll call back later." Lacey looked at the machine and erased the last few messages all of them were from telemarketers trying to get her to buy stuff.

The phone rang again just as she slipped her shirt off and tossed it on the floor. Her apartment wasn't as tidy as it used to be. She listened to the answering machine as it told whoever was calling to leave a message at the beep. "Hi again, it's me Janice..." Lacey nearly crashed into the coffee table in her rush to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Oh hi Lacey. I was just leaving you another message. Since you're there I guess I don't have to." Her friend giggled. "Are you OK? You sound sort of out of breath."

"Oh yeah I'm just great I just had a run-in with the coffee table that's all. So, how are you doing?"

"That's what I'm supposed to be asking you." Janice laughed. "So are you coming with me?"

"It sounds great actually. I could use the cheering up and company. Today was just awful."

Janice interrupted her. "Tell me about it later when we get to the bar. I'll be going to the bar on Elm Street. The one with that funny looking dog on the front. Don't worry about the cash. I'll be paying for all the drinks. I have a surprise for you." They said their goodbyes over the phone and Lacey quickly got ready.

Finding the bar was easy. Janice was waving at her from just outside. "Hey Lacey!"

They began the night of drinking with soft fluffy drinks with very little alcohol in them and Lacey was starting to enjoy herself. After spilling her guts about her day and all the previous days, both girls ordered something with more kick. Lacey felt herself floating. She giggled at Janice when she couldn't stand up.

"I need to go to the ladies room." She giggled and Janice helped her on her wobbly feet. "Good thing I didn't wear heals." They both laughed. "Hey Janice, what's that surprise you told me about on the phone?" Her mind cleared a bit as she walked in to the brightly lit restroom. "I feel a little drunk."

"HEHE. Me too." Janice squealed. "My surprise? Oh yeah! I got a promotion." Janice rinsed her hands in the sink and splashed a little water on the back of her neck. 'Boy I feel hot.' She froze when she saw the look on her friends face in the mirror. She turned around and placed her hands on her friend's shoulders. "I'm sorry Lacey. Mr. Moorley gave me your old job."

Lacey sat on the toilet for a minute, stunned. She hadn't known that job had meant so much to her, but apparently it had. "I feel sort of sick." She wasn't a heavy drinker and had never drank this much. Before she knew what she was doing she flung the seat of the toilet up and vomited into the bowl. Janice held her hair for her. She threw up a couple more times before she felt good enough to stand and flush the toilet clean. "Lets get more to drink boss lady." Lacey wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

Janice nodded quietly and followed her out in to the bar. They stayed until last call. Janice and Lacey walked home together. Both women were stinking drunk. They sang a few songs, but by 5am Janice admitted she had to get home to work on a new ad over the weekend for Monday. Lacey nodded incoherently and Janice left.

When Lacey woke up an hour later, she was in bed with nothing but her bra and panties on. Her head pounded dully. Janice had left her fifty bucks and a short note. "Pay me back when you get a job." She thanked Janice in her mind and put on some shorts and a t-shirt that were laying on the floor. They smelled a bit since she hadn't washed any clothes in a week, but she didn't care. She would get some drawings done.

Weeks passed and she still had her apartment, but just barely. Janice visited less and less since she was so busy with her new job at the ad agency. Unemployment checks came every week and every week Lacey looked for work, but to no avail.

On one particular night she turned on the TV for some background sound and fell in to a fitful sleep. She dreamt in cartoons. Waking in a daze she found her pencils and began to draw the people she had imagined. They came out strangely attired and not at all as she had planned, but she continued to draw until morning.

The sun peaked over the horizon as she slumped forward and fell into an almost coma-like sleep, Drool dribbling from her lip.

Lacey awoke with a splitting headache. It was some time in the afternoon and she needed to head in to town to wash some clothes and buy some food. With the money Janice had left her in her pocket, she rolled her best clothes into a used sheet and went down one block to the laundry mat. She carried the clothes on her back like a heavy burden, bumping into people and being cussed at for taking up the sidewalk. Her apartment wasn't far from either the laundry mat or the grocery store, but after stuffing the washer full of her clothes and dumping in a box of pre-measured soap she shrugged. Pushing the over-filled washer closed with her shoulder and quickly turning it on, she left to go for a walk. She was sure the economy sized mega washer could do all her clothes at once since she only had a few dollars to spare on getting them washed.

It didn't take her long to find the art supply store. She looked around a bit and shuffled through the aisles not really interested in anything until she realized she was in a part of the store she had never noticed before. Sure she had been in this store hundreds of times while she had been working or when she just needed to draw, but now she had found something totally new.

Noticing the layers upon layers of dust and cobwebs she now realized it wasn't something new at all, but something very old, nearly ancient. Her senses alert for the first time in weeks, she found herself hunting for something in particular that drew her forward, but she didn't know what she was looking for.

In a dark, musty corner on the bottom shelf was an ancient looking box. She crouched and picked the box up, running her hands over the carvings on the surface. She studied it carefully. Turning it over in her hands she found some scratches on the bottom of the box. Lacey stood up carrying the box with her she went towards the light. The scratches were as old as the wooden box itself. She couldn't make them out, but she figured it was some foreign language. Chinese or Japanese? She didn't know since she didn't speak either language.

Without warning the lid popped open and several wooden cylinders fell out. Each one landed with a snap on the tile floor and broke open. Nothing came out of them, but when Lacey went to put the cylinders back she noticed that they were cylinders filled with dried watercolor paint. Each one was as brilliant in color as the day they had been made and by judging the age of the box she was sure these watercolors were very old indeed. She placed them carefully back in the box along with the few paintbrushes that had fallen out. Just as she was going to put it back on the shelf and forget about it, she hesitated. 'Why not ask how much the paint kit was? It wasn't like she could afford such luxuries anyway.'

She kept her eyes on the paint kit in her hands as she walked up to the counter, like it might disappear if she didn't keep a constant watch on it. Something about the box drew her and she couldn't help but be a little afraid of something that felt so right in her hands.

The clerk looked up from his magazine and fumbled with the box, looking for a price tag or barcode. He shrugged when he didn't find any. "Sorry lady there isn't a tag on this. I can't sell it without a price."

"Uh it was on a clearance rack." She lied easily. "The tag must have fallen off. I think it said a dollar?" That seemed to do the trick.

The clerk shrugged again and smiled. "Fifty cents for this junk. Clearance today is half off." Lacey dug in her pocket for the fifty cents and quickly left with her purchase, not even waiting for him to bag it or give her a receipt.

She made it back to her apartment before she remembered she had left her laundry at the laundry mat and she had no food in the cupboards or refrigerator. She sat the box down on her desk and went out again. Her mind hadn't felt this clear in a while.

Reaching the laundry mat, Lacey was accosted by the owner. Her things were shoved at her and she was told to leave. Apparently when she had over-filled the washer she had 'really' over-filled it. The washer had banged and rocked like someone had filled it with cement. The laundry mat owner was notified by one of the customers and he had come out to find it overstuffed and fallen on its side.

He had opened the washer to find her clothes in it. At first he was confused about who would do such a thing, but then he was mad because the expensive washer now needed replacing. Grumbling he took out the soapy soaking sack of clothes and waited for their owner to return. When she returned he threw the bundle at her, the mess knocked her off her feet into the gutter. She felt guilty for ruining the machine, but what could she do? She didn't have any money to compensate him so she simply left, dragging the soggy mess home.

Lacey dumped her clothes in the tub and left them there to soak after she had filled it with hot steamy water. Sitting down with her newly acquired paint kit she took out one of her recent drawings and began to fill it in with color. She giggled at the drawing of a man with silvery hair and strange markings on his face like a crescent moon and slashes of color on his cheeks. After filling in the colors for his picture she left the rest for later and sat the drawing in the sunlight to dry. Hobbling to the couch she flipped through TV channels with the remote and found something funny to watch.

For a moment she wondered what there was to eat and remembered all she had was a box of cereal and no milk. Electing to eat the cereal dry, she got up off the couch, but only made it to the phone. Janice was calling her. She picked up the receiver of the phone listening as her friend spoke. "Lacey!"

"What's got you so riled up Janice?"

"We need to go out and celebrate." Janice replied. Lacey had to pull the receiver away from her head. Her friend's words were excited and louder than normal.

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't he tell you?"

"Who tell me?"

"Umm..." Janice sounded hesitant. "Mr. Moorley has to tell you. I can't ruin the surprise, but call me back right after he does. We'll go out to eat and see a movie. I wonder what's playing at the theater tonight?" She rambled on for a few more minutes before saying goodbye and hanging up leaving Lacey completely confused.

Lacey was sitting on the couch with a handful of dry cereal in one hand and the remote to the TV in the other. Her clothes were drying on a line she has strung up through the apartment. The kitchen and bathroom were outlined in undergarments while the living room area was shirts, skirts, and pants. She had decided to wash all her clothes in the tub since she really couldn't afford to go to the laundry mat and really wasn't welcome there anymore. They were drying about as fast as one could expect since the sun had gone down an hour or two ago and Lacey had the heater on to dry them and the windows open to cool off the apartment. The hot air from the heaters and the cool air from outside were conflicting with each other and doing battle in the small apartment.

The phone rang and Lacey jumped. She had almost fallen asleep. Her eyes widened at the cereal spilling on the floor. Lacey winced and tried to straighten her neck. 'That's what I get for sleeping on the couch.' The phone rang again cutting off her thoughts as she lifted the speaker to her ear. She yawned.

"Ms. Keegle?" Lacey nearly dropped the phone. "I know its late Ms. Keegle, but I have been in meetings all day with the Japanese." He paused for dramatic effect. "I'm sure you've heard from one of your friends here that the Japanese have decided to allow us to be their new ads managers. The thing is they liked your family oriented stuff so much they wanted you to…" He coughed. "Work with them on some new merchandising ideas." Lacey's head was reeling from all the information he was giving her. "Tomorrow I want you to come in to my office and we'll go over some plans together. From what I was told, you're to go to Japan and meet with their artistic director within the week."

"OK." Lacey hung up the phone and turned around in a daze. She didn't know how to feel. She was surprised and shocked that Mr. Moorley had asked her back, but at the same time she was sort of mad at him for firing her in the first place. Everything in her head jumbled around until it was all a blur. She picked up the phone again and dialed Janice. She just had to tell her about her conversation with Mr. Moorley.

Janice told her that the Japanese had insisted on her being included and would work with no others on this proposal. When she was done on the phone, she cleaned her apartment as fast as she could. Janice would be there any minute to take her to the hottest dance clubs in town.

While Lacey went out partying with Janice, a faint breeze came in through the open window and blew her drawing of the strange golden-eyed demon lord onto the floor. It was one minute after midnight and the full moon lit the room with an iridescent glow that made everything look ethereal and unnatural. The heater clicked off and the cooler night air crept through the partially opened window. The curtains fluttered slightly and a breeze stirred the piece of paper that now danced on the floor with the slightest touch from the air. The wind picked up speed and wound around the drawing manipulating it, making it float this way and that, only to rise again like a kite. Out of the clear night sky, a star winked fizzled and faded black. The paper drawing halted its ballet as if held by an invisible string. It slowly turned up-side-down and sparks of green, gold and bluish-silver began to rain down out of the paper. Colors flooded steadily out of the paper collecting on the floor in pools of moonlight. A figure formed from the pools of light and watercolors. It was a perfect replica of the drawing Lacey had finished earlier, a perfect watercolor drawing. Electricity rippled through the air and rolled over the watercolor demon. Where the electricity touched...turned fleshy and tangible. Supple skin mastered pigments of paint, flowing silver hair shed the thick choppy strokes of ink, and silk and iron replaced the painted representation of clothing and armor. The eyes turned heavenward and blinked.

Lord Sesshomaru surveyed his surroundings before examining his body fully. The room was simple for the time, but a lot of the things in it confused and surprised him, although he wouldn't for his new-found existence, tell anyone that. His lips twitched into a smirk. Everything was perfect, even under his kimono. A living specimen of what was ancient and best forgotten with Bigfoot and sea monsters. That was less painful and easier than he had thought. 'What a perfect spell.' He surmised. The look on Inuyasha's face when he had sucked up in the time void was well worth it.

He remembered just what had happened on that fateful day.

Sesshomaru had been traveling on the border of his land, looking for any errant youkai that wondered on to his property. A few lesser youkai had trespassed and he had let them know they were trespassing before slicing them open with his poison claws and displaying their bodies on pikes for anyone else who wished to roam where they were not wanted.

The old witch woman had snuck up on him while he was washing any traces of blood from his claws. The fact that she had snuck up on him was a surprise since this Sesshomaru was never taken unaware. What was more surprising was that this witch woman wasn't scared of him at all and in fact smiled benignly. She was just a normal human he could tell by her scent, but something about her made Sesshomaru suspend killing her right away.

She watched the lord of the western lands with interest. She was sure he was wondering about her presence as well. Stepping closer, she noticed how very tall he was and how very strong he was in comparison to her withered and hunched old body. She wouldn't be much fun to kill. All the life had drained out of her many years ago. Age had taken its toll on her. She was alone in the world. Ninety-five years had gone by and that was a feat in any century. She hobbled forward on brittle bones and looked the youkai in the eyes.

"Your insolence is compounded by your presence and your boldness." Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. He still wasn't sure what she was doing here or why he hadn't just hacked the old woman in half. The old woman laughed once and brought out a box he hadn't even noticed she carried. 'I must be going blind not to have seen that.' He growled at his own thoughts. "What do you want old woman?" His irritation was getting the better of him.

She didn't speak, but kept on with what she was doing. She placed the opened box at his feet and slipped the lids off the cylinders of watercolors. He could smell them now. When she straightened he could see her crooked grin. From her sleeve she pulled out a razor thin knife. Her eyes glittered dangerously. She intended to attack him with that?

"Incredulous!" He spat. He knew he could kill her with ease, but he just stood where he was waiting for her to attack him. Sesshomaru wanted to know how a woman so old could think of attacking him and surviving? "Hmmm." Maybe that was why she was here? Maybe she wanted him to kill her? That made no sense.

"Don't worry I don't plan on kicking the bucket today." She said the words like she had read his mind. "I have other plans for you." With startling speed she raked the knife down his forearm, leaving a gash the length of it down to his wrist. "Bleed you youkai bastard!"

Sesshomaru was paralyzed he realized too late. His blood rained down from the quickly healing cut she had inflicted and drizzled into the paint containers and stained the grass. The woman cackled and raised her fist at him shouting incoherently. "Like a daisy cut from the wild. HAHA. Beautiful the one day but dried up the next." She picked up the box holding the cylinders of paint and blood. She stirred each one individually, making sure the drops of blood that clung to the sides were actually absorbed in to the paints. Her bony fingers twisted the lids on tightly. "You'll see all in good time."

"Witch woman what have you done?" His voice wavered a bit and he felt the pull of her magic dissipate. He did not know how forcibly he had been held until he was released. Somewhere along the way she had negated his fleeing instinct and had even hidden the fact from him with curiosity.

"Curiosity killed the cat, or in this case the dog."


	3. Chapter 3

Janice and Lacey laughed hysterically as they watched the dancers out on the dance floor. Lacey hadn't felt this good since...well...she couldn't remember when. Janice ordered another round of drinks. The bartender poured them some pinocoladas and walked down the other end of the bar to get somebody else a drink. The club was loud with voices and music. The strobe lights came on and a pulse-beating rhythm filled the room. Janice sat her drink down and tugged Lacey to the dance floor. They giggled and started to dance, gyrating arms and body-parts made it hard to do any real dance moves. Lacey nearly got her eye poked out by an elbow. Janice bumped her back into someone and they began shouting.

"This is too crowded!" Lacey shouted at Janice.

Janice looked around and nodded, still moving her feet to the beat. "What?" Janice shouted above the roar of the crowd and the music. Apparently she hadn't heard what Lacey had said after all.

Lacey tried again. "Janice I think it's too crowded! I think we should go sit back down before someone drinks our drinks." She turned and grabbing Janice's hand, walked back to their stools and their drinks.

"Heya, I don't mind being dragged out of that mess, but you could at least tell me your name cutie." Lacey quickly dropped the hand she was holding.

"You're not Janice."

"I know." He leered at her. "I'm Joe. Now tell me your name sweet lips."

'Gah, men actually thought lines like the ones he was using on her really worked?' She turned her back on him and stepped up to the bar. Grabbing her pinacolada without looking, she took a drink. "Ack!" Her drink had a cigarette butt floating in it.

"Hey cutie, you still haven't told me your name." Joe was still there when she turned around.

She flew past him heading for the bathroom, clutching her hand to her mouth. Joe shrugged and walked to a new group of women. He ran his hand through his hair and 'pimped' himself up.

Janice found Lacey rinsing her mouth out at the sink. She patted her friend on the back and went in to one of the stalls, locking the door. "So I saw you with that guy at the bar?" Lacey mumbled something as she spit a mouthful of water into the sink. "Yea I know, one minute you were there dancing on the dance floor and the next minute I see you dragging some guy off to the bar. I thought you finally had the nerve to ask someone out." She flushed the toilet and came out of the stall to wash her hands. "You never go out with men. It took you six drinks for you to get the courage up to ask for the waiter's phone number."

"I've had dates." Lacey reminded her of the two men she had 'dated' last year. "There was Larry from accounting and Anthony from the mail room."

Janice rolled her eyes. "Those weren't dates. Those were pitiful. Do you remember how they ended up?" Lacey looked at Janice stubbornly. "Larry made you fall asleep during the soup portion of the meal. You almost drowned." Janice laughed still feeling her buzz.

Lacey choked on her tongue, laughing so hard. "I did not."

"And Anthony is just a kid. He was still wet behind the ears." They both gasped, clutching their sides, tears streaming down their cheeks. "Anthony drove you home in his mother's four-door sedan."

Lacey sobered a little. "Aw...he was cute though he wanted to take me to his graduation dance." She held the face for a moment and then they both burst out laughing again. "Come on. I need another drink that last one left a bad taste in my mouth."

They left the ladies room and after a few rum and cokes, they also left the club. Lacey and Janice wobbled out of the club arm in arm. "I have a question..." Lacey tried to form her question precisely, but found her mind was all over the place.

"Hmmm?" Janice was considering taking off her heals and running home through the park. "Ha!" She plucked a penny out of the crack in the sidewalk. "Find a penny... I forget." She giggled and tossed the penny at Lacey. "What ya want to know?"

Lacey braced herself against a light post, rubbing her temples. "How did you get promoted to my position so fast?" Her head leaned back as she watched the stars. For a moment she thought she saw one disappear. She shook her head to clear her mind.

Janice had sat on the curb. Flipping her hair over her shoulder she sat back and glanced between her friend and the stars. She licked her lips nervously. Lacey came over and sat next to her, clicking her heals like Dorothy out of Wizard of Oz. Janice took a deep breath and began. "Well you know how there have been rumors about Mr. Moorley for the last two years?" Lacey didn't answer. "Lacey wake up will ya." Janice shook Lacey, a little worried about her friend. "Don't go falling asleep on me. We have to get you home if you're going to be falling asleep in the gutter." She heard Lacey giggle and sighed. "Well his wife left him about two months ago. She found him in his office with another woman."

Lacey frowned. She remembered the time well. It was when Mr. Moorley had started giving her more work and more clients. She had wondered at the time why he had been so preoccupied. Now she knew he was preoccupied not with work, but with home life. "What's this got to do with you getting a promotion in less than a month? It took me three years with the company to get where I am...was...am...whatever." Her head rolled on her shoulder, her mouth hanging open. She turned back to Janice and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was the other woman." Janice said with a nervous laugh. After a long silence Janice slumped. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

It took a few seconds for Lacey to absorb what her best friend, in the whole world, had just said. It had a very sobering effect, something like getting slapped in the face with a bag of ice. She couldn't look at Janice just yet. Her eyes roamed the street and then locked on her shoes. "Did you know he was going to fire me?"

"No, I had no idea. I guess with his problems at work and with his wife filing for divorce..."

"So you're going to tell me it was stress that made him humiliate me?" Lacey remembered the scene in Mr. Moorley's office and a mixture of emotions washed over her. "Why did he give you my old job then?"

"There wasn't anyone more qualified than me." She shrugged. "That's what he told me anyways."

"So, you weren't involved in any way in that decision?" Janice shook her head no. Lacey tucked a curl behind her ear and stood up. "Well friend, let's go get some more drinks before I have to go to work tomorrow."

"You're not mad at me?" Janice stumbled behind her.

"Why should I be? You just slept with the man it's not like you committed murder...although it does say in the bible...something or other about coveting and adultery."

Janice laughed. "You might want to brush up on your bible."

"It's not anything worth losing a friend over. By the way, was he any good?" Lacey raised an eyebrow at her friend.

"Nothing to brag about. Actually he wasn't all that good. He kept fumbling and he has sweaty hands." Janice and Lacey laughed all the way to the next bar.

Lacey removed the key from her purse as she reached her apartment door. Her neighbor, Mrs. Riccollili stuck her head out of her door just as she unlocked her own door. 'Damn I'm caught.' Lacey didn't have anything in common with Mrs. Riccollili. She didn't dislike her. It was just sort of an annoying habit of her neighbor, to pry into other people's business, which irritated her. Usually when Lacey walked in late, she would walk as silently as a mouse past her neighbor's door. The woman must have had ears like a bat. Lacey made herself smile at the old lady. "Hi Mrs. Ricco. Shouldn't you be in bed? It's pretty late."

"Sort of a late night for you isn't it Miss Keegle?" Mrs. Riccollili ignored Lacey's comment. "Did you have a big date tonight? Why didn't you bring him home with you? You're not still a virgin are you?" Lacey blushed at the old woman's obtuseness. She figured her curiosity was caused by lack of family. Oh she had family and lots of it, but since her husband 'God rest his soul' had passed on and her kids had moved away, she was left alone with a lot of time on her hands. Most of it went to spreading gossip and giving advice where it wasn't needed. 'No wonder her kids had moved out of state.' Lacey opened her apartment door to go in, but Mrs. Riccollili went on talking. "Lacey darling don't you think it's about time you got married and had some kids?"

Lacey felt a lecture coming on about how today's women just didn't have time to juggle a career and kids and then she felt a bubble of laughter at the thought of literally juggling kids and all the tools of her trade. She cleared her throat. "No I hadn't Mrs. Riccollili."

"You know I have a son about your age and he's a single doctor." Lacey shifted uncomfortably. She knew Mrs. Riccollili's son the doctor and knew he was more than 10 years her senior, fat, bald, and depressing. "I also have a grandson, who is about five years younger than you, who is a lawyer. Of course you being older shouldn't matter, since I think you've kept your shape pretty well for being an older woman."

Lacey groaned. She also had met Mrs. Riccollili's grandson and he wasn't five years younger than Lacey. He was five 'months' younger and he was a pompous ass who liked to one-up everyone with his useless facts and brag endlessly about all the stuff he had. It was then that she remembered something. "Isn't your grandson getting married next week?"

"This goes to show you that you're way behind on that account. Speaking of accounts..."

Lacey knew if she let this go on much longer she would be stuck in the hall all night and wouldn't get any sleep before work tomorrow. As it was she was running low on hours before eight. "Excuse me I have to get up for wok in five hours."

"Oh. You finally found another job? That's another reason to get married, because once you get married you wouldn't have to work anymore. Let the man worry about the bills and all you would have to do is take care of the babies..."

Lacey entered her apartment and closed the door firmly on Mrs. Riccollili. "That woman is enough to make anyone nuts."

Lifting her shirt over her head, she walked in to her bedroom and kicked off her shoes. She slipped out of her skirt and slip intending to take a nice hot shower. Lacey grabbed a fresh towel off the floor where she had stuck them in her rush to get her apartment "looking" clean before leaving with Janice. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror as she let the shower heat up. Steam was already filling the tiny room and she had to wipe a towel over the mirror to see herself. Her eyes looked bloodshot and her red curls looked messy and plastered to her forehead. Her head tilted to one side and then the other trying to catch a glimpse at what men saw in her, or more to the point, what they didn't. It was true she hadn't had as many dates in her lifetime as Janice did in a month. She stretched the skin on her face trying to see what she would look like without the small wrinkles she hadn't remembered getting or the bags under her eyes that looked like they held a closet full of clothes each. After another minute of scrutinizing every little flaw on her face, she unhooked her bra and shimmied out of her white cotton panties.

She got in the shower. "Mmmm warm." Lacey reached for the shampoo without opening her eyes. She opened it and squeezed the vanilla scented stuff into her palm. "Yummy." She took her time in the shower letting the water wash away all her problems from the last few weeks. The bill collectors...gone. The worries about money...gone. It would have been easy to fall asleep standing there under the hot water. She rinsed her hair and bent over to get her shaver that fell in the bottom of the tub and nearly fell on her face.

Drying off with her extra fluffy pink towel, she walked in to her bedroom again and switched off all the lights. She flopped onto the bed with an exhale and a towel still wrapped around her wet hair. She was fast asleep, not bothering to get under the heavy covers. She didn't even notice the man at the foot of her bed watching her intently.

To Sesshomaru she smelled heavenly, but he wouldn't let that thought cross his mind. Nope, not this Sesshomaru. All humans were below contempt, especially weak females. He wouldn't allow thoughts like how hard she had made him when he had seen her in her undergarments that did nothing to conceal her lovely shape, or how he had nearly been panting over her alluring femininity as she washed her hair and her perfectly rounded breasts had risen when she raised her arms over her head and stretched in the shower. No, he wouldn't admit to thinking things like that about anyone especially a human female. 'Stupid bitch. She acted like she didn't even care that she was walking around completely nude in front of him.' But then again, she hadn't even noticed he was there. He growled low in his throat. 'Another moment of this and I might as well just hand her my sword so she can kill me. I must be getting weak. She must be a witch like that old woman.' He thought he heard her murmur something, but he didn't know what. It didn't sound like any language he knew. 'Using her body to get me to do what she wants no doubt. It won't work. I'll just have to kill her before she wakes up again and can put me in another spell.' Even to his own mind he sounded reluctant and he growled again at his own stupidity. He unsheathed Tokijin. The darkness of the sword repelled the light that filtered in through the curtains and through the doorway.

She moaned and rolled over on her stomach. He bent over her and removed the soaking wet towel from her red locks, inhaling the sweet scent that assaulted his nose, and the underlying scent of alcohol still on her breath. Lord Sesshomaru couldn't kill her while she was sleeping. There was no honor in killing a sleeping, defenseless woman. He tossed the wet rag across the room and stood with his back to her in indignation. His contempt for humans could not wipe out the nagging tingle in his spine that prevented him from killing the woman where she lay. 'Had that witch told the truth?' He turned when he heard her roll out of bed and stand up. He held Tokijin to her throat, ready to hack her head off now that she was awake. 'Damn you woman something prevents me.' His cold exterior held firm although his resolve was wavering in the face of this female. Sesshomaru actually felt 'butterflies' in his stomach.

Lacey stood up sleepily, still half drunk and faced the man shadow that held the sword so unwaveringly to her throat. "Ha! How could I have forgotten to brush my teeth?" Her hand touched the blade of the sword that threatened her, and deftly pushed it away from her throat. With weary eyes she stumbled into the bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush. She reached in to the cabinet and pulled out the toothpaste. She looked down at her hand in dawning terror, the toothbrush dangled from her numb and bleeding fingers. "Blood?" She thought she might pass out at the sight of the blood coating her hand and toothbrush, staining the bristles red. Trembling, she raised her hand to look at the deep gashes and the meaty flesh that was now exposed and pumping blood in rhythm with each heartbeat. "I thought I was hallucinating." She stared at her hand and the cuts that gushed anew with each pulse. Her hand blurred before her eyes and she felt the darkness take her.

Sesshomaru re-sheathed Tokijin and growled in frustration. 'Damn her and damn him for not killing her.' The smell of her blood and utter realization of what had just happened mingled and he tried to not rush to her side when her horror at seeing her own blood hit him like a fist to the gut. He heard the tremble in her voice and the hesitant steps she took before blacking out and he did rush to her side as she was dragged into unconsciousness. He caught and held her before she hit the floor. He held her in his arms wondering what he should do with her. The iron grip on his emotions softened when he saw the pallor of her skin and the way her breathing had become rapid. "What are you doing to me witch?" He should kill her now. 'Why?' his mind asked the question he dared not ask aloud. 'Why kill her? She is just a human and can't harm you in any way so why kill her? Is your hate for all things so complete?' He closed his eyes and felt her shudder against him.


	4. Chapter 4

The old witch woman cackled again when she saw that the high and mighty Lord Sesshomaru did not get her meaning. "How the mighty shall tumble and fall."

Sesshomaru was completely disgusted with himself. He sneered at the witch woman and unsheathed Tokijin. His actions only made her laugh harder. He would not bloody his claws on her. He wouldn't be tricked and lulled into a false sense of security again. He knew she was formidable when she had so easily taken advantage of his natural curiosity. The evil blade called out for blood and vengeance. His eyes tinged red.

"So many questions go unanswered if you kill me now my lord." The old witch woman straightened her bent body as best she could and re-arranged her clothes. Her smile did not fade however, which made Sesshomaru's youkai blood boil. He was close to losing his temper to his demon nature, but he had to know what manner of spell she had just performed on him with his own blood sacrifice. "You youkai think you're better than men, but you're wrong and I'm going to prove it with my experiment. I've lived far longer than I wanted and had far too much pain in my life at the hands of demons." Her smile turned into a frown. Her grief gave him satisfaction. "I've bound you Lord Sesshomaru to my paints. I want to see you squirm and sweat. My whole life was taken from me thirty years ago, except for my great, great granddaughter, whom I loved very much." He saw her wipe a tear away and felt a little pleasure but it was a tainted pleasure. "She had a child five years ago and then was killed only last year by wolf demons. I could not make the trip to retrieve the child. I am old and worn out. When I heard the news, I was heartbroken and came down with pneumonia. A while later I heard the village where my kin was staying had been slaughtered and my last living relative had been killed."

"What does this have to do with me?" His voice was emotionless and his face was placid. He held the sword firmly, feeding off its evil energy.

"You are in essence the most cold and uncaring of all youkai. You show no emotions and no mercy. Who else would be as perfect as you to be in my experiment?" It was a rhetorical question. "I cannot have my life and family back, but I will see the lord of the western lands feel pain and remorse like I have."

'She was insane.' Sesshomaru's eyes widened. Her heartache had wounded her so deeply that even though Sesshomaru wasn't the one who had killed her family, he was the one who would pay for it. He would not be drawn into her crazy scheme. He could withstand Naraku and so many other demons, yet he could be brought down so easily by a fragile human woman? Not him!

"Youkai love and feel just as much as humans do. They are no different. The one they say that has icicles for blood will feel love." Tears were streaming down her face. "I know your secrets." She shivered as if cold, but the area was warm and sunny. "I've seen into your future and you will fall in love and feel all the emotions you have suppressed. Far into the future you will go. When these watercolors touch the paper of the one who holds your heart, you will be transported to her time."

"Who is this person you speak of?"

She totally ignored his question. "I know why you hate humans. It's not that they show emotion and are weak, but it's the fact that they seem happier in their misery than you do on your best day. You want to fit in and be normal, but you can't and that is what makes you hate them. You can't ever be normal and have a family or let your guard down, because if you did…you would have to feel the pain of losing loved ones. You must always prove to yourself that you are better than humans are, even if you know deep down that you're worse. At least people have a place in the world and family to share it. Where do youkai fall in to place? Only in fairy tales and stories." She turned and began to walk into the clearing. He could hear her crying while she laughed at the same time. "You and your wooden mask…" She spat. "One last word of warning youkai...take this chance I give you or your soul will be damned forever in hell. It's youkai like you who will be the downfall of demons. Adapt now or die out."

'What the hell does that mean?' He held his tongue and was about to leave, when he saw Rin. The old woman had disappeared more silent than a snake on the prowl.

Her face was frozen in fear at seeing the dead youkai on pikes. Dismayed, he grabbed her by the arm and turned her away from the gruesome scene. "Where is Jaken? I told him to not let you come out here."

"He's he's..." Her eyes pooled with tears. He sighed, not knowing what to do.

"Rin forget what you just saw and come with me."

"Yes my lord." She turned a happy smile to him and he raised an eyebrow at her remarkable buoyancy.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken squawked. "I went down to mushroom field to collect some mushrooms and I told that stupid human girl to stay put, but when I turned around she was gone." Jaken fell to his knees sweating profusely. He grasped Sesshomaru's ankle and begged for his life. "I'm sorry master I lost the child. Please don't kill me."

"Jaken I told you to watch the girl."

"Yes my lord, but..." very calmly, Lord Sesshomaru kicked Jaken across the field like a football. He landed on his butt in the mud. When he came to, he squawked with annoyance. "Why does Lord Sesshomaru like that human girl more than he likes me his faithful retainer?" He got to his feet with the aid of his staff.

"Rin?"

"Yes my lord?" Rin smiled and jumped up and down on one foot.

"Why did you not stay where Jaken told you to?"

"I don't like Jaken he's smelly."

"That's no reason to disobey him." The corners of his lips did turn up at the thought of it though, since Rin was right. "Jaken!"

Jaken hurried to catch up with him. "My lord?"

"You're taking a bath when we get back." Jaken's jaw dropped. "Your stench is offensive."

"Lord Sesshomaru, who was that old lady?" Rin asked as she walked ahead of him gathering wild flowers.

"She was nobody to concern you with Rin." For half a step, he wondered if indeed he was right. "Rin do you remember your parents?"

"Umm...not a lot." Her head tilted to one side and she tapped her finger on the end of her nose. Rin snapped back to the happy puppy mode.

"Hmmm." They continued on their way. Sesshomaru stopped often to let Rin rest, but they didn't mention the old woman again. She talked non-stop for hours as they traveled. "Rin be quiet." She was immediately silent.

"Lord Sesshomaru look, it's your brother Inuyasha." Jaken saw Inuyasha and his pack of friends enter the forest. "Are you finally going to kill him and take Tetsaiga?"

Sesshomaru strode to the edge of the forest. "Stay and watch Rin." He told Jaken. He watched Inuyasha head into the forest his companion's quick on his heals.

Inuyasha stopped a few yards from him and growled, showing his hanyou fangs. "I thought I smelled a bastard in here."

Sesshomaru stood waiting for his brother to make his next move. "Inuyasha what do you want?"

Inuyasha's female rested her hands on Inuyasha's arm. "Inuyasha!" Her voice went up in disbelief.

Sesshomaru could smell her from here. She did smell pleasant like the flowers that grew in his garden outside his bedroom. The other female had a similar scent and even the monk had a fresh flowery smell about him. But even that scent could not mask Inuyasha's hanyou musk. "What's going on?"

The little group looked at him as thought they had forgotten he was there. Inuyasha and the one named Kagome stopped arguing for a moment. They looked to their friends and Inuyasha folded his arms over his chest like a stubborn brat. All his friends looked slightly annoyed by Inuyasha'a attitude.

Kagome huffed and glared at Sesshomaru. "Uhhh...Inuyasha and I have come to ask your permission to cross your lands. We've lost a member of our group, Shippo, and Inuyasha was tracking his scent which seems to go into these woods."

"Why should I care if you lost some human pet Inuyasha?" Sesshomaru bypassed Kagome which made her puff up with indignation and stomp her foot. "I'll save you the trouble of looking for your pet and wring its neck when I find it."

"You wouldn't dare." Sango glowered at the youkai lord, ready to strike him with her Hiraikotsu. Miroku put a hand on her shoulder.

Inuyasha snorted. "For your information he's not a human he's a demon fox."

"Whatever." Sesshomaru was bored by the whole conversation. "If he wondered off that's his own fault." He began walking away. "I don't care what you do as long as you stay far away from me. You have one day to find your little kitsune, but don't ask me for anything else." He wondered what had made him be so generous.

Kagome felt tears sting her eyes. She was worried about little Shippo…out there all alone. "Listen you moron..."

Inuyasha cupped a hand over her mouth. "We'll find Shippo by ourselves. We don't need his help. We should have known he wouldn't understand." He removed his hand from Kagome's mouth and she stuck her tongue out at him. "Come on you guys I can smell him over this way."

"I'm just glad we didn't have to fight him." Miroku commented.

"He has every right to kill us for trespassing on his land." Sango held Kirara in her arms now that Kagome had taken the fire cat out of her backpack, where they had hidden her. "I'm glad he didn't try to attack us. I'm sort of tired of all the battling we've been doing lately."

"Huh! I wouldn't worry about him. I can take care of him with my Tetsaiga."

Lord Sesshomaru met up with Jaken and Rin at the top of the hill. He had been pondering his generous mood, which gave him a dark scowl. Rin went on talking about everything and nothing. The little human girl had slightly toned down her high-pitched voice at the look on his face. He was getting a headache.

"Lord Sesshomaru why didn't you kill that mangy hanyou and his human friends?" Jaken grumbled.

"Jaken take Rin home." Sesshomaru said disregarding Jaken's question. His clawed hand went to his temple. He headed towards the hot springs. "Rin, make sure Jaken takes a bath before I get back."

"Awk!" Jaken rushed Rin home.

Sesshomaru had a bathhouse in his castle, but he preferred the hot springs when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. The bathhouse was mostly for Rin and the servants to use. He took off his clothes and folded them neatly on a rock next to the hot springs. He relaxed into the pool and closed his eyes. A second later, he was awakened to the smell of a little youkai and his very boisterous exclamation. 'It must be that kitsune Inuyasha had been hunting earlier.' Sesshomaru got out of the hot spring and put on his clothes. The little fox must have caught his scent by then, because he started running. 'So much for relaxing.'

"I'm so stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Shippo cried as he realized he wasn't alone in the woods anymore. "Inuyasha? Kagome?" He asked the darkness. It was so quiet that had they been a foot away they wouldn't have heard him. His voice caught in his throat. He ducked into some scrub trees. "Is that you Inuyasha?" If it wasn't Inuyasha, he sure smelled like him. Shippo trembled, as the dark figure got closer. "Oh no, it's not Inuyasha. It's his stinky brother Sesshomaru!" He fled his hiding place in a panic.

Sesshomaru gave chase. That little bastard had called him stinky. He caught up to the obnoxious demon child easily. He picked it up by the tail and watched it flail its arms and legs trying to land a punch. He actually smiled, but it faded quickly. "Stop that." When the kitsune didn't stop, he was surprised since Rin obeyed him without contest, but this little youkai was furiously trying to escape. He shook it.

"Ow!" Shippo's eyes rolled in his head. "Let me go you big bully. Just wait until Inuyasha gets here you'll be sorry." Sesshomaru grunted when the kitsune sunk it demon fangs into his wrist. "Ah!" Shippo was yanked off Sesshomaru's arm and grabbed by the scruff of the neck. "Uh oh."

"Stop your whining brat." Sesshomaru shook the little demon again. "You're not worth looking for. Why would Inuyasha have such a small worthless demon in his company? Even a hanyou half breed has standards." He smelled that same flowery scent on the kitsune as he had smelled on Inuyasha's party before. He wondered at it. "What's that scent on you?"

Shippo began to pout. "Kagome brought some soap with her. She was trying to make me take a bath with it, but I didn't want to smell like flowers. That's girly stuff." Sesshomaru began walking back to the hot spring. "It smells nice on her though."

"Is that why you ran away?"

"I did not run away." Shippo struggled even more to get out of Sesshomaru's grip, but he wasn't letting go. "I went to see Lady Kaede and ask her if she had any soap that smelled manlier." He blushed. "But I uhhh...got lost in the woods. I got sort of scared and kept on walking in one direction hoping Inuyasha or Kagome would find me. I figured it would be better to keep on moving than stay in one spot for too long. Besides with all the scent markings you left I couldn't smell anything but you and got even more lost."

"Disgusting little runt." Sesshomaru stopped at the hot spring and picked up his swords Tokijin and Tensaiga. He dropped the kitsune on the ground, but held him firmly with a foot on his tail. "I went out of my way to not kill you."

Shippo gulped, but covered his fear quickly. "Why don't you just kill me now and get it over with?"

His bravado made Sesshomaru chuckle. "You're too puny to waste my time in killing you." He picked up the demon brat Shippo and headed back to his castle. "I think I have better plans for you."

When he got to the castle Rin ran up to him all excited and yet very sleepy. "Lord Sesshomaru." She threw both arms around his knees giving him a big hug. "Jaken has been grumbling all evening. He took a bath like you ordered, but I don't think he liked it." She made a face. "I still think he smells funny." She changed the subject. "What have you got there? Can I see it?" Sesshomaru plunked the furious Shippo on the floor and walked away. "Wow! You're a little fox demon aren't you?" Rin circled Shippo, examining him and then picked him up and crushed him to her chest. "You're so cute." She squealed and Shippo had to cover his ears. "Can I keep him my lord?" Rin hopped up and down.

"Do what you want with him." Was the reply.

Shippo yelled at the girl to put him down. "I'm not a toy." She dropped him with a thud. "Stupid girl." He mumbled and went to sit by the big fire that blazed in the middle of the room. He didn't notice the girls rejected and hurt look until he saw her streak across the room and up the stairs, crying. He sighed and brushed a leaf from his hair. "So much for that."


End file.
